2013, Week 8: No Love for Cathedral

Mount Miguel crashed the Top 10 with a 42-21 victory over previous No. 1o El Capitan, but UT-San Diego‘s weekly rankings otherwise remained the same in the lead-up to Week 8.

Except.

Cathedral, which I ranked second, stayed fifth and, contrary to some other winners, did not receive more  points after a 42-3 blowout of 4-1 Scripps Ranch.

I don’t get it.  The Dons have played a tougher schedule than all of the teams above them other than Oceanside, but they’re not getting any respect, in my opinion.

Justifiably perceived North County bias in  media power outlets doesn’t appear to be in play.

Cathedral is considered “North County” (although its Del Mar address  is within San Diego’s city limits, as is Torrey Pines’, and Cathedral is part of the city’s Eastern League).

San Pasqual, 6-0 and second in the poll, obviously is outstanding.

But the Eagles haven’t had a Vista Murietta, Arizona’s Chandler Hamilton, or Gardena Serra on their schedule, as have Cathedral, Eastlake, and Oceanside. San Pasqual has had a full plate of essentially rank-and-file North County neighbors.

The first five teams’ strength of schedules (opponents’ won-loss records combined):

Team Won Lost Pct.
Mission Hills 15 21 .417
San Pasqual 16 19 .457
Eastlake 20 18 .526
Oceanside 29 9 .763
Cathedral 22 15 .595

I couldn’t elevate Oceanside despite its strength of schedule.  That 30-6 loss to Mission Hills was uncharacteristic but it couldn’t be ignored.

Place Team W-L Pts Last Week
1 Mission Hills (31) 6-0 310 1
2 San Pasqual 6-0 246 2
3 Eastlake 5-1 223 3
4 Oceanside 4-2 218 4
5 Cathedral 5-1 182 5
6 Ramona 6-0 178 6
7 Madison 6-1 122 7
8 Helix 4-2 110 8
9 Carlsbad 5-1   43 9
10 Mount Miguel 5-2   18 —

*Points awarded on 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.                                                               Others receiving votes with points: St. Augustine, 14; Grossmont, El Capitan, 13 each; Torrey Pines, 4, Imperial, Mission Bay, Hoover, 2 each; Rancho Buena Vista, 1.

Thirty-one sportswriters, sportscasters and administrators vote each week, including:  John Maffei, Craig Malveaux, Dennis Lin, Don Norcross, Lisa Lane, and Andrew Burer, U-T-San Diego; Steve Brand, Terry Monahan, Bill Dickens, Tom Saxe, Rick Hoff, U-T-San Diego correspondents; Nick Pellegrino, East County Sports.com; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Rick (Red) Hill (107.9 FM The Mountain); Jeff Kurtz, playonsports.com; Ernie Martinez, XTRA Sports 1360; John Kentera, Jack Cronin, Ted Mendenhall, Bob Petinak, Jordan Carruth, Bobby Wooldridge, Mark Chiebowski (The Mighty 1090;  Rick Willis, Brandon tone, Jake Fadden, KUSI-TV; Craig Elsten, 619sports.net; Rick Smith, Partletonsports.com; Jerry Schniepp, John Labeta, CIF San Diego Section, and Bruce Ward, San Diego Unified School District.